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A monthly eMagazine all about games and entertainment. (VALENTINES SPECIAL)
Citation preview
Contents:
20 Places to Take Your Girlfriend this
Valentine's Day... on GTA 5!
GTA 5 Online Review
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
- Movie Review
Thor 2: The Dark World (CANCELLED)
Resident Evil 6 - Game Review
Kim's Magic Tips - Magic 2014 Tips #2
Announced Game Releases for Feb
and March
TaZeR News:
Entertainment Central: This month
we introduced a new entertainment
page to replace "Live-Stream World".
This includes our favourite YouTube
Channels, Web-Based Series, Our New
SNAP! Movie Reviews, GameZone,
Website Exclusive Content and soon
to be our New Podcast!
Discount System: We have scraped
the Friday discount system in favour
of a constant updating discount
system.
Google Ranking: We recently ran a
search on Google to check our status
and were surprised and pleased to
find that when we search for "PC
Gaming Community" on Google.co.uk,
we came up as the 12th option on the
first page. A good sign that we are
starting to get noticed.
Quad-Core Editions: In April our first
"Quad-Core Edition" of The Gamer
Gazette will be released. This will be a
special edition of the gazette, which
consists of the first 4 issues for 2014,
with some extra reviews and stuff
including an exclusive competition for
gazette readers. These editions will be
released in April, August and
December.
New Reviewer: This month we
welcomed a new reviewer to the
team...James Clayton. He will be
writing reviews on classic and retro
games from the last decade that he
considers are worthy of a revisit.
Above: Coming Soon...Quad-Core Editions of The Gamer Gazette!
20 Places to Take Your Girlfriend
this Valentine's Day...on GTA 5! The Casino... Los Santos boasts two of any
gambler’s favourite pastimes side by side...a horse racing track and a casino. Just lookout for ‘rigged’ games or you could lose the shirt right off your back.
A Gentle Bike Ride... Take advantage of Blaine
County’s many wonderful trails and tracks and impress your girlfriend with a display of power and stamina...just remember to look where you’re going!
Impress Her with a Fast Car... Girls love fast cars!
And girls love guys with fast cars! But what girls don’t like is being featured on the Local News as the girl dating “That guy who got caught and shit his pants when he was tasered.”
The Fun Fair... Definitely a good place to show off
your manly skills by winning her lots of stuffed animals to take home, just be careful you don't overdo it or there may not be enough room for all of you in the small Ferris Wheel's bucket seats.
A Romantic Camping Trip... Alone... Together... In
the Woods! Not many better ways to get close and personal with a girl then when she is scared and you have to comfort her. But for pity's sake, don't forget to put the handbrake on your RV! Deep Sea Diving... A great way to impress, rent a
boat and pretend it's yours. Take her somewhere really far out and suggest skinny-dipping! Tee Hee! Oh, and don't forget to leave it an hour before getting in the water after eating.
An Expensive Shopping Spree... Sure to impress
any girl with only one major drawback...it's expensive! Got no money? Not too much of an issue in Grand Theft Auto! A Helicopter Ride... Take a scenic tour of Los
Santos, Blaine County and San Andreas, there's plenty to see. Wind Farms, Towering Skyscrapers and OMG WTF is that!? Extreme Off-Roading... A unique and thrilling day
out for anyone and a real chance to show off! All any man needs is a girl and something powerful between his legs to really go for it...although in most cases he probably shouldn't. A Simple Meal at a Restaurant... One of the best
ways to impress your girl, after all what girl doesn't like to be wined and dined? Unfortunately, due to the lack of actual food outlets in GTA 5, you will have to resort to other means of finding food. I think the term is 'skipping'.
Rent a Speed Boat... Expensive but impressive,
most girls will just assume that you own it and we all know what that means...it means you weren't looking while her face was in your lap and didn't spot those pesky rocks! Warning! A sudden impact may result in your date biting down...HARD! Sky-Diving... Only for the most adventurous of
couples, but for the love of god if your girlfriend is blonde don't let her pack your parachute! A Round of Golf... Relaxing and practical with the
added bonus of being able to stand behind your girlfriend and help her swing. So in theory a very good choice for a stress free date. But it's a well known fact that golf is so boring, you may have to find ways of keeping yourselves entertained.
Visit the Movie Studios... One of the most
interesting places in Los Santos to visit you will see many weird and wonderful things here. Just don't overreact if you suddenly come face to face with a six foot alien! Trainspotting... A date with a difference! Different in
the way that you're a trainspotter and so you will most certainly be going home alone...or with an ambulance crew because you were too busy pulling a 'selfy' with a moving train to notice that it may be a little too close... Atomic Blimp Ride... Most guys go on dates with
the hope of ending it with a satisfying explosion. Well, if your plans are to ride the Atomic Blimp then that is pretty much guaranteed!
To a Night Club... A few drinks and a dance is a
really great fun way to end the night...and if your girlfriend catches you dancing with the stripper the night will end much quicker than you think! A Hiking Trip... The best way to see the sites is by
helicopter, but as we have already established there are strange unholy things in the sky, so one alternative is to walk to the top of a mountain to view it from there, but when your girlfriend suddenly announces that she is really "in the mood" after all that walking, be careful you don't get too excited and lose your balance. On "your" Private Jet... Private Jets are out of the
question for dates unless you are a billionaire, but GTA being GTA this is not much of a problem, there are tons of them just 'lying' around which probably don't belong to anyone. However, if the one you choose does happen to have an owner, who also happens to have the number to Merryweather Security this may create one or two issues for your perfect date.
The Final Step - Take her Home... So if you have
followed all of our wonderful advice and managed to get this far with your girlfriend, then there is only one thing left to do...Take her home, make sure you have a Bong, Whiskey, Wine and some weird green goo in a glass and just get Freaky! (Special Thanks to Alex Dardani and James Clayton for their help with getting the pictures needed for this article.)
GTA 5 - GTA Online Review By Nathan Scullard Well let's start with...it's fantastic! There you go review done! No seriously! I have never really given much thought to an online version of GTA, probably because I was too busy picking up prostitutes and mowing down random pedestrians to care. But what a great idea! I had tried the online section of GTA 4 very briefly but wasn't all that impressed to be
honest. GTA 5 too isn't without its faults. First of which is the really really really...really long tutorial! It doesn't help at all either. When I finished it I was bored, pissed off and still had no clue what I was doing. Admission Time! I have to admit that I have been playing this on the Xbox 360 as I'm sure a lot of you know we PC gamers have to wait even longer to play it as its not yet been released! Which I think is totally unfair. So I apologise if anything mentioned in the review isn't in the PC version, but I would have thought they would be pretty similar. Let's just hope that they have a GTA Online or I'm gonna look REALLY stupid! But the reason I mention this now is because if it wasn't for my friends on Xbox I think I would still be driving around Los Santos without a clue what to do because the tutorial was pants. Thankfully if you have some friends and manage to get the hang of what to do, it's so much fun! You can do practically anything you can do in the normal campaign (which btw is also fantastic and it's worth buying the game for the campaign alone- Trevor is Awesome!) including visiting the cinema, playing Golf and Tennis, having street races, robbing convenience stores, hijacking armoured cars full of cash and loads more. I'm also go go out on a limb and say that they have big plans for the future too. All around Los Santos, Blaine County and San Andreas there are signs on buildings like Casinos and Horse Tracks that say "Coming Soon" or "Opening Soon" and although it's not confirmed, I believe that these will be coming into play as updates during the next couple of years. Rockstar have already confirmed that they will be implementing 'Heists' into the online mode, which will allow you and your crew...yes I did say crew, can plan and carry out heists. If you wish to start a crew you will need to register yourself on Rockstar's Social Club website and get all your friends to do the same, then create and invite them into a crew. This however has created one major drawback! I have always known GTA to be a fun do anything you like kind of game where the rules didn't apply. Killing prostitutes to get your money back was acceptable and stealing a bus full of school kids just to drive it off a cliff was laughed about. But now, because of the missions, races and other game type, which I will go over in more detail in a minute, it has attracted the attention of competitive gamers. I have nothing against competitive gamers, I used to be one myself and probably will be again when Destiny comes out, but GTA being full of competitive gamers is a bit of a buzzkill. I just want to play GTA and have a laugh, I don't want people
sending me abusive messages because midway through an online mission I got distracted by rabbit that I just had to get a photo of or decided that breaking into the prison was way more fun than the mission I was in. Thankfully they have addressed this issue by letting you create private servers which you can just play in with your mates. Now as I mentioned, in GTA 5 they have put things for you to do, which is always nice, but one of the biggest additions is the street races, missions and team-based games. I'm in two minds about these though, I like the missions that you can play together and work on completing an objective, but I don't really like the team deathmatch type things or last man standing, and that is simply because I still think that the shooting on the game is still too clunky. It has vastly improved over the years, in fact, I played GTA 3 on steam the other day and OMG the shooting was bad! There is no shooting mechanics as such, you just lock onto someone wherever they are and spam the shoot button. But it still isn't quite there yet. The driving on GTA has always been good and GTA 5 is no exception making the street races a great addition to the online missions. My only problem with them in fact is that it seems they are the only ways to level up you character online, you do get points for escaping cops, doing stunt jumps and a few other things but you don't get anywhere near the experience points you get on the missions, which is a shame because the mission are ok, but they aren't what I bought GTA to do. Although having played the campaign through and have a good idea of what to expect from the new 'Heist' missions I am in fact looking forward to them. Making money in GTA has never been easier...well if you're a cheating mofo who prints his own cash anyway. GTA 5 have recently been clamping down on all the cheaters who have been creating their own money, so it may be something as a PC gamer you may wish to look out for. If you were expecting to go onto GTA to just that, be aware that Rockstar are ready for you, they have been very successful so far in routing out the trouble makers. But if you are like me and went into a lobby and got gifted like 100 Billion without asking for it, you may have your cash taken off of you eventually but my advice is in the meantime...Spend, Spend, Spend! Rockstar will take illegal funds from people who had the cash gifted to them, but if you have bought items or property with it then you get to keep it as it wasn't you fault in the first place! Top tip there!
GTA 5 allows you to buy properties too, but now we come onto the only major problem I really have with this game. If you buy a property like a house or a garage then you cannot buy another without selling the one you have! If I have the cash, I want to be able to buy whatever I want! I bought an expensive penthouse apartment with a 10 car garage, and as soon as I filled the garage I thought, "No Prob, I'll buy a separate 10 car garage somewhere else." Oh no! You can't do that says GTA, you have to sell your house with the garage to buy this garage...WHY!? One other thing, if you buy an apartment with a 10 car garage and then your friend buys one, but not the same one, not even in the same block or street, they will look exactly the same inside! I hate that, they should all be different in my book. I don't want a carbon copy of my friend's house I want it to be mine! At least let me have some customizable options like carpet colour or different furniture or something! (Breath...) Rant over... But to be totally honest that is the only bit that annoys me about this online section of the game. As an open world online experience it's second to none. There is nothing better than piling all your friends in a car and driving around terrorising people, or inviting them all up to your flat, calling some strippers and getting steaming drunk or off-your-face-stoned with the complimentary bong supplied in every 10 car garage apartment. There are things it could do better, but you never know, those things may already be in the pipeline to be implemented in later updates (I hope so). If not, then my character will starve to death due to the lack of food outlets, which I was very surprised to see had gone. You can see them when you drive around but you can't go inside...no more making your character hurl after too many cheeseburgers... (Sad Face). I could talk about all the features for hours, but honestly there are so many, it's better you just buy the game when it comes out and see for yourself, you won't be disappointed it is a great game.
My Rating: 9.5/10 (If they improve some things with updates then 10/10)
The Hobbit:
The Desolation of Smaug By Nathan Scullard
I have to admit
that I am not a
fan of The Lord
of the Rings. I
never have
been. Even the
books I found a
little dry in
context and
the story just
dragged on and
on.
I don’t know how many of you know this, but
J.R.R Tolkien originally created the wondrous
world of Middle Earth as a bedtime story for
his children, and what a story! Even though I
will happily admit that it is not my personal
favourite, even I can see its merit and why
people would fall in love with the shear
concept of a fantasy world. And if my parents
had created
stories such as
the Lord of the
Rings and The
Hobbit for my
bedtime
stories, I
imagine my
dreams would
flow with the
tales of Bilbo
Baggins, Gandalf and all the other amazing
characters.
But although The Lord of the Rings didn’t
strike a chord with me, The Hobbit will always
have a special place in my heart. I read it as a
12 year old child and it literally had me
captivated throughout. I may even go as far as
to say that it was the very first spark of
inspiration that sparked my love for writing.
Indeed, the first book I wrote as a child was a
medieval fantasy called “The Master of
Tempests” and the similarities were quite
obvious to anyone who read it.
So when I heard that they were making a
Hobbit film I was torn. I had loved the book,
but I really had not been keen on the
adaptation of The Lord of the Rings on film,
and I knew that they would be similar.
But the first film had surprised me and
surpassed my expectations by delivering a
wonderfully accurate version of the book. And
when I realised that they weren’t going to try
and squeeze the whole book into one film I
was even happier, because I still think that
that is where they went wrong with The Lord
of the Rings, which in book format is much
longer then The Hobbit.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the
story of The Hobbit, I will briefly go over it.
The story follows a Hobbit called Bilbo Baggins
who gets unexpectedly dragged into helping a
band of Dwarves break into their ancestor’s
hidden kingdom under the lonely mountain,
which was taken over by a vicious dragon
named Smaug, who wiped out the dwarves
who lived there
and claimed all
their gold for
himself. And
there he has
remained ever
since. But there
is a prophecy
that the true
King will return
and claim the
kingdom once again for all dwarf-kind.
This is where Bilbo comes into it. He is
recommended by Gandalf, a wise wizard, as
an excellent thief for the quest as Hobbits are
small and if they need to be can be very quiet.
At first Bilbo flat out refuses, and to be honest
he doesn’t stop refusing, but no one really
pays it much attention he is quickly whisked
away with the others.
We pick up the story in the second film as the
group are trying to avoid a pursuing band of
Orcs who are trying to stop them from
reaching the mountain. Their journey leads
them to many places, but one of the first
places they visit is an enchanted wood which
they end
up losing
their way
in and get
captured
by giant
spiders.
But with a
little help
from Bilbo
and the
magic ring,
they manage to escape, only to be captured
by wood elves and imprisoned. Here we see a
young Legolas.
The dwarves manage a daring escape by
hiding in some barrels and riding them
downstream over white-water rapids at the
same time as being attacked by the group of
Orcs who had tracked them to the wood
elves’ kingdom.
They then manage to bargain for
transport to Esgaroth, a struggling
lake-town from a man named Bard
who was waiting to collect the
barrels downstream.
Once they reach Esgaroth, they are a
mere stone’s throw away from the
lonely mountain, and waste no time
in getting there. Once there they
encounter Smaug still guarding the
treasure and attempt to kill him, but Smaug is
smart and decides to attack Esgaroth,
knowing that it will make Thorin, the dwarve’s
leader and the prophesized ‘true’ King under
the Mountain feel personally responsible for
all the lives he takes.
And this is where the second instalment ends.
It doesn’t really sound like much happens in
the movie when you write it like that.
Especially when you think that this movie is
about 2 hours and 40 minutes long. But there
are a few other sub-plots which I have not
mentioned as I don’t want to ruin it for you if
you haven’t yet seen it, which let’s face it, if
your reading a review on it then you probably
haven’t seen it yet.
The film was very
good and as I have
already mentioned
I’m a huge fan, but
even I noticed a
few problems. The
first of which being
one I had not
expected to have
an issue with. I
know that this is a single book made into
three films, and it is not the first time I have
seen this either. Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows for example was the first to my
knowledge that made a single book into
multiple films (probably totally wrong, but I
did say “to my knowledge” lol). Now, I don’t
usually have a problem with this, but this time
it just felt like they had gone out, bought a
copy of
The
Hobbit
and
opened it
on a
random
page and
used a
pair or
‘Art-
Scissors’;
those ones which cut in jagged lines, to cut
the book into three sections to make their
films. And while all the good juicy content of
the book is still there, it just feels...messy. As a
result I felt that instead of this feeling like a
second film in a trilogy, it really felt like the
middle of something without a beginning and
an end. I know some of you will be going,
“What is this idiot talking about? It IS the
middle, so why wouldn’t it feel like the
middle?” Well, we I was at school and was
learning about writing stories, I was always
told that a good strong story is only as good as
the strong opening and the even stronger
finish, and although this is the middle part of a
book that has both of those things, when you
cut it up to make a stand-alone film you have
to create a sort of beginning and end to make
it feel complete and have substance, and it
was just lacking.
The only other issue I had with it was, and I
could be wrong here as I have not read The
Hobbit for years, but when I read it I don’t
remember Legolas being in it at all? Not
necessarily a bad thing that they have tried to
link the films, but I don’t think it worked this
time. It was obvious that they had tried to
make Orlando Bloom look younger, but I think
they had only succeeded in making him look
older and ever so slightly like a drag-queen.
But overall when you slide this into place with
the first film, it is a very good film, not quite
as good as the first but still important in its
own right. And despite its downfalls I am still
eagerly awaiting the final part.
My Rating: 7/10
By Kim Gustafsson
So resident evil is a new passion of mine! The
first film made me get resident Evil 5 and from
then on I was hooked, be it the movies or
games. I spent so many hours in that game
that I think I had double SS or triple SSS
ranking on every mission and Mercenary level
at the end, and thanks to a good friend the
same went for the split screen Mercenaries'. I
can't even begin to tell you how many hours
went into that game, and maybe that's a good
thing come to think of it. And when they
released Resident Evil 6 I had high hopes, not
just to see what they would do with the game,
like new game mechanics and so on, but also
about the story. I'm the type of person that
needs to know EVERYTHING in a game. Every
little bit of story that can be found, every
readable scrap of paper that can be collected
needs to be made mine. Anyway, I'm rambling
on a bit, let's get to the game shall we.
So Resident Evil 6 is now divided into four
different campaigns that in one way or
another ties into each other, and to
understand the game and all of the story, one
really needs to play all of them in order to get
what's going on. It's even set out in such a
way that you are still in the dark in some
cases until you play the very last part, and its
locked until you have done the other three,
and after playing it I can see why.
So I thought I would simply talk about them in
the order I played them, and hopefully not
give away any spoilers as best I can about the
story's end. But before I do that there is a few
other things that will cover all of the
campaigns. And the first thing I noticed was
that I could now move AND shoot, which
would alter the game entirely from Res5 (Res5
is Resident Evil 5 for the duration of this
article) where you had to make the choice of
one of them. Another thing I noticed right
away is the "that body is dead but not really
and will try to kill you when you get close"
mechanic. In Res5 you could shoot the bodies
before going past them, in Resident Evil 6
your bullets will simply pass through the body
and you have to go past it, take some
damage, before you can kill it. And that's
another thing I was not so happy with, if
something grabs you, let's say a "dead body"
you will instantly lose life and you can't do
anything to avoid it, that I hate. Now there are
perks in the game (I will talk more about them
later) that will make you lose less life, or to
make it easier to get out of the enemies grip.
But why aren't I simply supposed to shoot first
and walk past later. Its slows the game down
all the time for no reason for the bodies to
reanimate just as you walk past to grab you.
This aside, it did not slow the game down to
the point that I did not play the game, but it
was annoying interruptions that I feel could
have been avoided in my mind.
Then they had the interface, that I have to say
I kind of liked. It even alters between
characters, the base is the same but coloured
edges and well most of the design alters, I
love that and a big thumbs up. It gives the
characters a certain individuality that Res5 did
not have. You also have a bigger inventory in
this game, but I still find that I fill it up way too
fast for my liking, and not so long into the
game I stopped picking up grenades and
remote charges, as they took up a lot of space
and I never really used them that much, there
was just no need to as the guns where just
better. Maybe in harder game modes I will
use more of them, but in Normal, I had no
need of them. The space was of better use for
extra ammo and anything that would refill my
health. And there's another thing that I found
to my liking, the health system is now divided
up in an x number of cubes shown on your
HUD, normally 5 of them. Lose all of them and
you die, well you fall to the ground and need
your partner to come by and help you get
back up again. If they fail you will die. You still
have the health spray that will refill all of the
lost health cubes, or pills (I call them tic tacs!)
that replace just one of the cubes at a time.
Not only can you carry up to 16 of these pills
at a time without them taking up any place in
your inventory making them highly useful,
they are also fairly easy to come by, and after
getting to know the weapons I rarely needed
to use the sprays. Once I had finished playing
through the game from start to end four
times, I realised I had only used two life
sprays, the rest was just as well healed with
the tic tacs (pills just don't sound so positive,
don't you think). Not only are they so many of
them, I can use them without having to go
into the menu, making them not only
inventory space free, but also faster than
getting the spray. Oh and one final pointer
before going into the campaigns, snipers are
horrible. They do a lot of damage sure, but a
sniper is a long range weapon right? Well not
in this game, here it's more like a midrange
weapon. There is so much weapon sway that
its useless, and there is not a "hold your
breath" button to aim better anywhere in
game. I used snipers as someone else would
have used a shotgun, in small alleyways
instead of on longer ranges. And it has the
damage output to justify it, instead of 3-4
shoots with the shotgun, I take one shot with
the sniper and moves on. The sniper needs to
be better at long range in my opinion. Oh and
one more thing about aiming, when aiming
you get the standard crosshair with a red dot
in it (that you can alter colour of by the way)
nothing unusual there right. Well here's the
kicker, when you start to fire your guns your
little dot moves around in the crosshair, from
being centred it jumps around inside it
throwing your aim off as the recoil would
have done. Kind of nice in a way, but the bad
part is that you have to wait a little while
before the coloured dot becomes visible
again, at close range it's not that much of a
big deal, but at range, it's a pain in the butt.
And to make it worse, if you want to reset the
dot, you have to lower your weapon and get it
back up again, it's a fast move, but sometimes
there are times when you simply can't or
don't want to for the fear of getting eaten
horribly by some monster. So NOW I can
move on :D
Leon and Helena:
After getting
into this I
noticed that
it was more
of a horror
story this
one, and I
have to be honest, I did not like it. It just
moved too slow for me. The story and acting
is good, but there was just so many
inconsistencies from the Res5 game that I had
come to know and love so much. And yes I
know that Leon was in the series before game
5 but I had a really hard time trying to warm
to the character as much as I would have liked
to. But then again I was never that keen on
the horror genre, and even though I see that
that's what they tried to do here, they failed
in my opinion. It's a fun campaign but as a
horror story just know that it's bad. But it
soon gets better as the story goes on and you
get a bit more speed in your steps, and in my
opinion the thing that turned the game was
more guns. When you finally gets to get out of
the puny peashooter you start with, the game
all of a sudden became really good and I had a
hard time seeing why they simply had not
given me the guns right of the start. It's hard
not to say too much and still leave the bigger
picture untouched for you guys as I don't wish
to divulge too much of the plot, but as far as I
can tell you it's a good campaign even though
it starts really slow and it is still the one I look
forward to playing the least. And since I have
not played anything before Res5, I did not
really know this character, and the game does
a piss poor job to introduce you to him I think,
the best information I got on him was from
collecting the special emblems that unlock
some info files that can be read later, but in
the game I just don't think they did a good
job. But maybe that is part of the characters
story from before, I don't know, anyways next
time I play it I will play as Helena, which
seemed more interesting, even though it was
stupid, incredibly naive and slow to explain
regarding her sister and the past events. I'd
still go with her before I'd play as Leon again.
All in all its a nice campaign, but for me it's
not the way I want to play the game, and I
found it slow and clumsy, and there were
several times when I yelled at the screen as
once again Leon went along with something
that there was no point in going along with,
that then eventually led to even more
problems. And all of the mystery could have
been avoided if his companion Helena, had
taken her head out of her ass and told the
truth to begin with.
But as I sad, once it got rolling properly I
enjoyed it enough to keep going instead of
giving up on the game.
Chris and Piers:
Chris I know from before,
but was a bit surprised
about his newly found
drinking problem, I had
not seen him as that type
of character in the
previous game, but I
guess everyone needs
something to believe in.
Then along comes Piers, a young soldier in the
BSAA telling him it's time to face your ghosts
as the world needs his services once more. He
tells Chris about the recent developments and
makes him give up the bottle but not his
problems as he joins the BSAA once again as
the Point Man of Alfa team with Piers as his
second. This campaign was more to my liking,
(I did not need to stop every three steps to
stumble over something that I could not walk
around). I simply liked the military strategy
more then I liked the previous attempt of
horror. Again I don't want to say too much
about the story, even though this is a review I
still feel that I want you to see this for
yourself, as I think they did a great job with it,
and it needs to be experienced, and not told
to you by an amateur review man. During the
story you also get to see what happened to
Chris to send him to the bar where he
apparently stayed until Piers came along. And
during their fight you also get to see some
very good acting between them, as more and
more of Chris' past unfolds and he falls further
and further away from his objective as part of
the BSAA and relies on Piers to keep him in
line. Over all this is by
far the best one of the
campaigns in my mind,
and that could because
its simply the most
straight forward one,
very little puzzle solving
or stealth, its more run
and gun, and that was
perfect for me. There
was this one time while
fighting a giant BOW
that I did not know what to do, but after a
good night of sleep, I figured it out the day
after, so I'm going to blame being tired as hell
and not figuring it out right away. It was not
even a puzzle, I just failed to see what my
team was doing. And it was a lot faster passed
then Leon's and Helena's one as well, another
reason why I liked it, and it made me very
excited to start on the next ones to see if they
would be as good. Over all it was a lovely
campaign, not just for the shooting but also
for the characters
Jake and Sherry:
This one is a bit special in
yet another way from the
other two. Here you play
as Jake (well I did) who as
it turns out is Albert
Weskers son, and as such
also carries the genetic
DNA that allowed Wesker
some control over the C-
virus. Jake is a mercenary, and we meet him
for the first time just after he gets a dose of
the C-virus proving that he has antibodies for
the virus. Here we also meet Sherry who says
she is working for the government and wants
Jake's help to develop an antidote. Just as that
is said you have to fight for your life against
the same mercenaries that Jake a minute ago
trusted his life with, and I have to say, he
takes it really good. His only concern being
that the BSAA keeps firing on him as well as
his former comrades. Jake is a cold hearted
mercenary, and I like this character a lot, even
when asked to help the world he still comes
up with a price that has to be met or he will
simply walk out letting the world fend for
itself. But as you might have imagined, it gets
more complicated, and gaining a simple blood
sample lead's to a whole world of shooting,
fighting and running. And incidentally that
sums this campaign up pretty nicely. You
spend some of the time feeling like a god,
killing zombies and being an overall badass,
and the other running away like a little girl
from a particularly tough BOW that seems to
have its mind set on Jake. While you either go
on like a battering ram or run like a school girl
Jake finds a friend in Sherry, and for the first
time he makes a connection with another
human being since he lost his mother some
years back. And maybe I let my own feelings
for the characters get the best of me here (I
love Jake and I always had a soft spot for
Sherry too). I thought that they were hitting it
off a couple of times during the story, but in a
way I did not have to stop and think, "oh
that's so cheesy" so I'm kind of curious about
what they will make them do in any future
games. But unfortunately I don't like all of the
running away parts, since it simply slows the
game down to a crawl. And they often give
you an instant death should you fail, not a fan.
But I found them to be kind of easy so they
are not that bad and don't slow you down for
too long.
Now even though I like the campaign, there
are two very bad things with this campaign.
The first one is Jake's hand to hand combat,
he is described as very good at it, but the
hand to hand system does not justify that at
all. It's just too stale, and has only three
different moves to it, so there's not that much
versatility in it (not that
those three attacks are
the ones used while
having Jakes Hand to
hand "weapon"
equipped, and not the
standard attacks that all
characters can make).
Sure they do some
damage, but its faster
and just better to shoot
them instead of risking
getting too close just to try them out.
The second thing that's really bad here is the
driving you get to do is horrible. The first one
was a snowmobile or a "Scooter" as I would
say considering I'm from Sweden. But the
handling of the thing is utterly horrible. You
have a throttle and a break/reverse and that's
it. And while driving down from a mountain
that's coming down over you, you have to
jump between cliffs, go left and right between
trees and so on. Unfortunately your
snowmobile is as nimble as an oil tanker sent
down the same hill sideways, with a small
man called Bob to steer it down using a toy
car steering wheel. It simply will not move the
way you want it to and should you, god
forbid, have to turn at some point, you can
simply end up going down sideways, and with
only a throttle and a break, you have no way
of getting back up again. "But you can use the
sticks to steer" (was playing this part with a
controller) you say, well yes in a way, left stick
controls the scooter, or so it claims, it just
tries, that's it, while the right one controls the
camera, and can actually make you go
sideways again. Needless to say, it was bad.
And after a few more missions you have to
drive a bike, now this was still bad and I
thought boring, but it was far better than the
previous attempt at driving. And it was
enjoyable even though I did not like it.
But I still felt a bit cheated as I thought I
would be able to use some nice hand to hand
combat moves, but the system just was not
there. And to make matters worse, at one
point you are forced to use it as your weapons
have been taken away, and it does nothing to
help you like the system, shooting is fine, and
the normal hand to hand system is fine, but
not the actual hand to hand that's supposed
to be good (a lot of hands there) and it was a
big disappointment. But it still makes up for it
with the nice gameplay and you don't need to
use anything but guns in all but one mission.
And again they have made good work of how
the characters intermingle and talk, all but in
one place. There is a level where I have to
hide from a set of what I can only describe as
bloat flies, who are trying to track me, and I
can jump into a container to hide from them.
But when I do my companion Sherry, does
not, she simply stands there and nothing
happens to her, I wonder why, if it's a bug, or
if the flies simply only react to Jake, or the
character you are currently using, other than
that it went on with no more problems, and in
the end I liked the story.
Double Doors:
Now there is another campaign, and I will get
to that in a minute, but first I have to talk
about the biggest ghost in Resident Evil 5-6.
The Dual-Controller-and-Lock-Out-System
that seems to be pestering the game.
Everywhere, no matter where you are, who
built it, or in what country you are in, be it
Chinese, or Indian culture, if you are going to
open a door, you have to pull two different
levers at two different places at the same
time. Who the fuck makes this system and still
thinks it's a good thing? It slows the game
down terribly as you have to wait for your
partner (this is playing with an A.I) to kill all
the monsters before getting to the door,
while you simply wanted to open it and be
done with it. Admittedly I can see its uses
when playing with a human player, as it forces
a way of interacting with your companion as
having to watch each other's back and so
forth, but in single player, it's simply a bad
idea I think. This being said, let's go to the last
of the campaigns.
Ada Wong:
So this campaign is a
bit different from the
others in the sense
that you are alone as a
player, but I have to
say you are
encountering so many
other characters that it
kind of feels like you
have them tagging along with you anyways.
And it also solves the problem with the Dual-
Door-System as she is alone it would stop the
game, so instead they gave her a nifty gun
with a rope and a hook in it, awesome! Not
only does it feel more fluent as you swing
yourself across the levels instead of waiting by
a door for your partner, it also added a nice
new mechanic, sure you simply press one
button, but still it's new. And I have to say it
allows you to move in a way that feels free
even though its horribly scripted. And to add
to it you get the awesome crossbow, I'm not
sure how much damage it does, but I just
liked it, it's just a shame how few arrows you
can carry before it starts to fill up your
inventory (again, I threw away all the
grenades and took more arrows).
As you started the first campaign, in my case
Leon's, you notice a lot of inconsistencies, and
keep thinking, wtf? And they just add up until
you get the last one, Ada Wong is your
answer, I was so glad that they did not simply
let it hang in the air, and simply took you
through what happened, but it only makes
sense after you have played that last
campaign. Unfortunately I found it to be very
short, but as it tied in all the things that I had
had a problem with so far, I still found it to my
liking and I did not find any real thing to
complain about either. Its short, simple, but it
answered my questions, and maybe even
more importantly, I did not have to drive a
single thing, that made me even more happy.
I still would have used the crossbow a bit
more though, were it not for the lack of
arrows.
Perks:
I promised to talk about the perks in the game
so here it is. Some enemies will drop a small
piece that will look like a piece from a
chessboard and will give you a certain number
of points as you pick it up. This is your
currency and can be used to pay for perks and
upgrade them once you have unlocked them.
You can only have three of them on at any
given time, and I believe they did this so you
would have to alter between campaigns and
characters to make it work out. But on Normal
Mode I found a combination of three that
worked overall, good on all of them. And I
have to say they are pretty good, I don't know
about the damage boosts, since I can't get any
number on it but for the rest I have to say I
fell in love with the "Breakout" one the most.
It helps you get out the grip of enemies, and
the faster you get out, the less life you take as
well. And it could just be me, but I think it
helps with the quicklime events as well. But
that could just be my own imagination playing
pranks on me. The other ones I used was the
"Increased Gun Damage" (even though I could
not tell how much extra damage it was doing,
but felt it could not hurt all the same) and
"Fast Reload" just in case anyone wanted to
know.
Overall I love this game, and I have not even
started talking about the mercenaries mode,
and all the extras in the game, and I won't,
cause I want you to get the game, and once
you have, you will be a happier person for
doing so. If you liked Resident Evil 5 , I'm
pretty sure you will like this one as well.
Acting is good, voices are good I have to say,
the only thing that I think is horribly broken
that I have not yet talked about is the reload
system.
As your gun empties, I figure it should reload,
but it does not. It stays empty until you pull
the trigger again or press the reload button,
why not just reload right away as the gun is
empty? And the setting "Reload
Automatically" seems to be there just to look
good, as it made no difference at all whether I
had it boxed in or not, it still played the same.
So other than that and the other small failings
of the game I still love it for what it does. It's a
good game for the zombie genre that seems
to be a bit over populated as it seems at the
moment. I dare say, I will have many hours in
front of the mercenaries screen. Until I see
you all next time.
Happy Gaming People!
Guardians of the Light: So I'm not going to be explaining much about
the game this time since this is the second
instalment in the series, but I will explain why
I went for this deck in this article.
The Guardians of the light was the second one
I unlocked, to do that you need to first
complete the first chapter on the single player
mode, then you click the "Spellweaver"
symbol down in the right corner and click on
the deck you want to unlock. You will have to
face them and should you win, you unlock
that deck to be used in both single player
mode and multiplayer, simple as that. That
being said I will get right to the deck, as there
is going to be a good number of cards on this
one so keep with me. And I will not be putting
up a picture for every card I talk about, as I
feel it will be a bit too much, so let's get
started.
So this is an augment deck, and what I mean
by that is that it's got a few creatures and
then a whole bunch of Enchantments and
Auras to make them stronger or right out
indestructible. It's an awesome deck in my
opinion and hopefully I can give you a few
hints about what to do with this deck. Keep in
mind that whenever I talk about
Enchantments on creatures they are also
called Auras, and I will be using that term on
creatures and Enchantments on the ones that
go on the board on their own.
First card of the day is Kor
Spirit Dancer. This is an
amazing card, not only
does it have an innate
ability for every
enchantment you put on
it, giving it an automatic
+2/+2 but you also get to
draw a card, and to add
on top of that you get the benefit of the Aura
as well. It's just perfect and can snowball out
of control really fast, so if you're playing
against it, you might want to take it out early
so to keep your enemy from becoming too
dominant early in the game.
Next up is Daybreak
Coronet. This card can
only be put on another
card that already has an
Aura on it (so perfect on
your Kor Spirit Dancer)
so you might need to
hold on to it for a little
while, but for what it
does its amazing. For only the cost of two
mana, you get +3/+3, Lifelink, Vigilance and
First strike! Remember though that you have
to have another enchantment on it already
for it to work, so it's a bit more expensive
then it suggests, but when you get it out, you
can turn an low level card to something that
can become a big threat on the board.
Let's say you want to
protect one of your
creatures from the
enemy. You can play
Spirit Mantle and have
the creature get +1/+1
and protection from
creatures. This means
that when you attack no
creatures can block it, and if they do if forced
by a spell or other, they won't do any damage
to it. So the only way to get it off the board is
by a spell or by some other sneaky play from
your opponent, it can give any card the ability
to stay and keep dealing damage to your
opponent. There is another card with almost
the same function as well, Unquestioned
Authority does the same, but you also get to
draw a card. A win win if you ask me!
Divine Favor is a very good defensive card.
Not only does it give any creature a healthy
+1/+3 but it also gives back 3 life to the player
something you and in case you have a partner
would not say "No" to.
Nomad Mythmaker is a
good card to have on
hand, and if you can
protect it you have a very
good starting point in the
game. If a creature dies
with an enchantment, it
usually takes the Aura
with it to the grave, but
with this card you can bring them back to the
board, think of it like a sort of recycling
program for your enchantment cards. Not
only that but it gives it directly to another
creature of your choice instead of taking it to
your hand. Saving you the mana it would cost
to put it back out again.
Skyhunter Skirmisher is
not the best card on its
own, but it is a flyer and
it has double strike,
meaning that whatever
aura card you put on it, if
it's a damage aura, it's
going to double the
damage dealt to the
enemy, an awesome and dangerous play for
anyone. Just keep it alive and it will deal
massive damage before you know it.
Guardians Magemark is a little special. Not
only can you play it as an "Instant", cause of
its Flash special rule. Now the card does affect
all cards with an Aura on them that you
control, and gives thems +1/+1. So if you have
five cards with an Aura of some kind, it will
affect all of them. A simple way of increasing
the damage of your army in general and not
just one creature at a time.
As you imagine by now
you're going to be
playing a lot of
Auras/Enchantments so
cards like Ajanis Chosen
will come in real handy.
It's only a 3/3 but for
every Enchantment you
play, you get to add a
free 2/2 cat creature token on the field,
always adding to your army even if you did
not play a creature, it's awesome. Make
another creature stronger and get one for
free. It's like buy 1 get as many as you like for
FREE!
Seraph of the Sword,
now this is not the only
card with this ability, it
just happened to be the
one I picked to talk
about. It's a creature but
it has the rule; "Prevent
all combat damage that
would be dealt to
Seraph of the Sword" meaning if you're
defending or attacking, it will not take
damage from other creatures. Keep in mind
though that this will not save it from spells
and certain abilities you will face in the game,
it will only save it from normal combat
damage, nothing else. Still it's a powerful play,
as your opponent might not have anything to
counter such a card.
Angelic Destiny, now
this is a super card, not
only does it give your
creature a good +4/+4
but it also grants it
Flying, Fist Strike and it
becomes an Angel as
well. And if that was not
enough should the
creature die this card will be put back in your
hand, it's a never ending cycle of angels at
your disposal. What's not to like. Keep in mind
though that some cards especially in the black
decks have spells and creatures that target
Angels specifically, so keep that in mind.
Indestructibility, now this is exactly what it
sounds like, it makes a card indestructible, it
can still be exiled, but this card is mostly going
to stay on the board, simple but oh so
powerful.
Armored Ascension. This
is another of those cards
that can win the game for
you. It will give a creature
+1/+1 for each plain you
control, and to top it off
will give it Flying as well.
However considering it is
based on the number of
plains you have it might be better to save for
the late game as you are bound to have more
of them on the board. But it can also just as
easily make for a nasty surprise in the early
game.
Dawnstrike Paladin, this is a creature with the
2/4 on its profile. But it also has Vigilance and
more importantly, it has Lifelink making it the
perfect card to Enchant increasing the
damage it does and increasing the life you
gain from it every time it deals damage, don't
underestimate the power of Lifelink.
Sigil of the Empty Throne, now this is a card
you should never leave home without. It's an
Enchantment that gives you an 4/4 angel, for
EVERY Enchantment card you play after this
one, giving you an army of angels in no time,
it's one of the best cards ever.
Celestial Mantle, this
card is another one of
those that can win you
the game in an instant,
not only does it give a
creature +3/+3 it also has
a special rule that goes
like this "Whenever
Enchanted creature deals
combat damage to a player, double its
controlling players health total". If I had 15
health, and it does damage I will get another
15 health for a total of 30, next time I get 30
and then 60, it can cause you to become a
god. BUT your enemy will know this and might
have a way to kill it before it gets to do its
thing, keep that in mind.
True Conviction. This is a monster card, it's an
Enchantment card that gives all your
creatures double strike, doubling their
damage, but it also gives them Lifelink, it's a
deadly combination and in my opinion
especially good in multiplayer games. But it
will make you a target though, so keep that in
mind.
Final Judgment, this is a
last resort card in my
opinion, if your
creatures and tricks
aren't enough to win the
game, and your
opponent is having
board control, then this
is what you play, it will
Exile all creatures on the board, all of them
gone, a great way to reset the board if you
took a wrong turn, or if you wanted to get rid
of your enemies strong killer creatures. Keep
in mind though that it will remove creatures
with Indestructible as well, as Exile and
Destroy are not the same rule, so keep that in
mind.
Now there are a lot of more cards in the deck
that I would talk about but I'm not going to,
these are the cards that I think are the most
interesting to use in a game with this deck,
and the combinations are endless. Just read
the rules of the cards and see your army
snowball out of control over and over again.
Until I see you again, I wish you all happy
gaming!
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